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The whole concept of HOA is crazy for me
HOA seems a very bad idea. HOA in the US is terrifying.
ATM, the HOA in my neighborhood is very very tolerable. The money (all $100 per year) goes towards maintaining landscaping and the signage. The only “restrictions” they have are no above ground pools (which I 100% agree with and they were rather powerless when someone actually installed one), and if you’re gonna put in a detached shed, at least try to make it a permanent structure instead of some cheapo plastic plastic thing from walmart or lowes.
JFC, only $100 per year? Is that right? That’s nothing.
Oh, I thought you meant each yard had landscaping like we do. Is it just common grounds, like the median, etc?
Yeah, like at the front entrance, the median for the main drag, there’s a small “public” pond.
Sadly, corporate buyout of homes into perma-rent hell is so much worse in how insidious it is.
You really just have to hope against hope that if you are stuck with a HOA, they’re already reasonable or can be wrangled into it.
Corporations are nigh untouchable, and that’s horrifying.
it sounds almost reasonable for those weird buildings where people “own” their unit or share walls
So most apartments in most countries in the world? Sure. Not sure why you have “own” in quotation marks, it’s quite normal outside of the US where you get “condos” with a ton of fees.
Usually every apartment owner gets an equal say in what happens e.g for planning and financing renovations, hallway cleaning (take turns on a weekly basis or hire a service or hire some retired person who lives in the building as a part-time job), etc.
It does indeed stop making sense when you’re not all living in a shared building. If I want my lawn slightly taller than everyone else, that’s my right.
because how can anyone consider it ownership if you do not have the right to destroy/modify it?
I guess, kinda, but the concept of “ownership” isn’t the divine right of kings. It’s an understanding of possession in relation to the rest of the world and other people. There are like zoning laws and shit like that for a reason, just because you buy a piece of land doesn’t mean you can develop it into whatever you want and put a chemical processing plant in a residential neighborhood.
Just because you bought an apartment and maintain exclusive ownership of it, it’s in the context of someone else owning the building, and someone/thing further owning the area that building is in. Ownership doesn’t give you any right to alter something in a way that affects the other peoples owned property or possessions.
Not that I’m advocating that it’s right or even a good thing, but essentially the “final boss” of ownership is the government because people can’t be trusted not to be petty dicks to each other
Usually you can modify everything inside the condo (walls, floors, ceilings) as long as it doesn’t compromise the structure of the building. In smaller condos (4-6 units) sometimes you can change the siding of the outside or the roof of your part too, depends on the building.
A house isn’t so different in that there are restrictions, since you have zoning codes and stuff. It’s ownership in that you own the right to live inside it and sell it and modify it within reason.
And for shared expenses in fancy neighborhoods like a maintained garden/sign entrance area with a gate. Or a neighborhood club house with a pool. The kinds of stuff apartment complexes have.